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Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard
Photo: Ben Gabbe/Tribeca X/Getty Images
The founder and previous owner of the outdoor company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, has donated his company to charitable foundations.
The 83-year-old wants to make his assets available for environmental protection - especially for measures to combat climate change.
"We had to find a way to put more money into fighting this crisis while keeping the company's assets intact," Chouinard said in a statement released Wednesday (local time) on the Patagonia website.
She begins by saying, "I never wanted to be a businessman."
According to the US newspaper "New York Times", Patagonia's company value is around three billion dollars (equivalent to around 3.01 billion euros).
All profits - according to the report about a hundred million dollars a year - that are not reinvested in the company are to be used in the future via specially established foundations for the fight against global warming and for nature conservation.
"Hopefully this will influence a new form of capitalism that doesn't end up with a few rich people and a bunch of poor people," Chouinard told the newspaper.
Chouinard founded Patagonia in 1973.
He spoke to SPIEGEL in 2017 about his company and its values.
For example, every year one percent of sales or ten percent of profits would be donated to environmental protection projects - whichever is more.
He also said in the conversation, "It's a kind of karma for Patagonia: Every time we do the right thing, we end up doing a good deal ourselves."
You can read the full interview with Chouinard here.
And here's an interview with Patagonia thought leader Vincent Stanley;
among other things about Patagonia's mission "We're in business to save our home planet" - roughly translated: We are in business to save our home planet.
aar/dpa